This invention relates to a fully enclosed carrying case for shotgun shells in which the shells are stored securely in individual easily accessable pockets.
Shotgun shells are relatively bulky items when compared to rifle or pistol cartridges and thus present special carrying and handling problems for hunters and sportsmen in the field where quick access to the shells is needed. Many bandolier type pouches, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,995,280 and 4,262,833, have been devised wherein each shell is suspended in a vertical position upon hangers. For the most part these pouches are relatively flimsy devices from which the shells can be easily dislodged. A good portion of the shell is also exposed so that it can become wet during inclement weather, as typically experienced in the field. By the same token the exposed portion of the shells oftentimes snags on foreign objects, such as bushes and the like, thus causing the shell to become dislodged from the pouch.
A more fully enclosed carrying case for rifle cartridges is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,947 that involves two hinged half sections that are designed to close over the cartridges. The cartridges are stored in individual open ended tubes mounted upon fold-out boards to provide ease of access to the cartridges when the half sections are opened. The open ended tubes have no means by which the cartridges can be indexed within the case. As a consequence, the cartridges can be either over inserted or under inserted within the tubes. In either event the cartridges can become misaligned within the case. This can prevent the case from closing and cause the fold-out boards to be bent or otherwise damaged. Furthermore, this type of fold-out mechanism is generally unsuited for use in conjunction with shotgun shells because the case must be overly large and thus too unwieldly for use in the field.
Another drawback associated with most carrying cases, and particularly those used to carry shotgun shells in the field, is the unreliability of the clasps used to secure the case in a closed position. Where the case is of a molded plastic construction, the clasps are generally poorly designed and the cover can be easily jarred open under normal field conditions. When this occurs the shells usually spill out of the case and become lost in the brush.